This book explores the historical evolution of a Mediterranean village that radically changed its core self-sustaining activities in less than a century, from fishing for anchovies in the Ligurian Sea to rounding Cape Horn. Drawing on a vast set of unpublished archival sources, this book addresses a micro-historical subject to investigate macro-historical processes, including the technological transition from sail to steam and globalization. At the core of the book lie Camogli’s rise in the world shipping industry and the transformations that occurred in its maritime labor system; seaborne trade, maritime routes, individual careers in seafaring represent the vivid elements that contribute to the book’s dive into the nineteenth-century maritime world.